The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-10-08
TUESDAY EVENING.

The evening of the first day was de-
voted to public services and the deliv-
cry of the Occasional Sermon, by Rev.
Sophie Glib, of Decatur. The weather
was most unpleasant, cold and driz-
zling rain fell the night was dark and
the streets slush and mud. Notwith-
standing these disagreeable surround
ings, fair sized audience was assembled
at the hour of service. The choir of
the Peoria church was in place and
gave some excellent selections. Rev.
w. F. Small read the Scriptures, and
Rev. T. H. Tabor offered prayer. We
give the following synopsis of the dis
course of Mrs. Glib, prepared for the
Peoria Journal, Of the following even
ing, leaving the question of the COM
plete publication Of the discourse to be
decided by the exigencies of our col
umns during the next few weeks. The
discourse was admirably delivered, and
made very signal impression on the
congregation. The Convention subse-
quently voted, no voice dissenting, to
request its publication in THE UNI
vERsALIsT.
Synopsis of Occasional Sermon.
Mrs. Glib selected for her text, Acts iii. 6
=" Silver and gold have none, but such as
have, give unto thee" These words, the
speaker said, were uttered by Peter in reply
to lame man who asked aims, as he was
passing into the temple; but in order to un-
derstand the force and animus of the reply,
it was necessary to trace the character and
history of the apostle from the time he was
called by Christ to leave his humble occupa-
ton as fisherman, and with his brother ST.
mon, to become fishers of men," That
Peter had no conception of the true charac-
ter of his mission was evinced in his early
inquiries about the matter of remuneration.
But Christ saw in him the possibilities of an
efficient pioneer in the work for humanity
and could not give him up. The develop
ment of Peter from the humble fisherman
through the course of his education, his dis
couragements, his trials and triumphs were
graphically traced by the speaker whose un-
ostentatious eloquenee had already arrested
the attention of the entire audience.
A beautiful parallel was drawn between the
history of Peter and that of the church whose
power in the world he proved at last such an
efficient instrument in establishing, and par
ticularly the branch of the church which she
represented. The heavens, she said, do not
open to men who have not a mission, but a
man or church that will work with disin-
terested zeal in the cause of Christ will find
work and reward In this great work many
good people err by failing to reach beyond
the era of temple building; and an important
lesson of the present age was where not to
build temples to the Lord.
Gods orders to the church are never to
"stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord" but always, as to Moses, to "go for
ward" This command heartily obeyed, and
the waters will divide. This church, she said,
had entered the conflict with the bright sword
of truth, and with it had stricken down many
hoary errors of former creeds but she ad-
monished her hearers that "swords do not
build kingdoms" We must be prepared to
receive every new word of God, though it
may break our hearts or our idols, and never
to spurn a truth, from whatever source it
came. Had God given US his entire word in
the Bible, that book would be a meaningless
mystery and its author a dead God. Every
day brings its revelation, and the church
which does not hear and recognize it will soon
be thing Of the past. She was earnest on
the folly of the church, as sometimes dis
played in the resistance of new truths-new
revelations from God-snd urged rather that
it lead, if il can, in discovering such revela-
tions, and if not that it be prompt to recog-
nize and faithful to accept them. Many men,
she said, need to learn that new truth, can
not be made to sound like an old truth, and
il is time to recognize that there is no reason
why it should. The church, like Peter, has
sometimes denied Christ in times of trial be-
cause lacking the bravery of full conversion.
The time came when no hardship or danger
could have induced Peter to deny his Mas
ter, and after fifty years of successful organ